Bolzano, please don't waste your money

Publicado: 2010-07-02

FSFE supports open letter from LUGBZ to Province of South Tyrol

Dear Minister Roberto Bizzo,

On 25 May 2010 the regional government authority of
Bolzano decided to spend 2.2 million EUR over the next three years to
renew software licenses from Microsoft Ireland, and to buy additional
licenses. All this was done without a public call for tender, making it
impossible for competing suppliers of similar software to make offers of
their own.

We ask you to rethink this decision. It will influence your strategic
position over a much longer time frame than the three years for which
the licenses will last.

“Many authorities have found themselves unintentionally
locked into proprietary technology for decades. After a certain point
that original choice becomes so ingrained that alternatives risk being
systematically ignored, no matter what the potential benefits. This is
a waste of public money that most public bodies can no longer
afford.”

With your decision to buy Microsoft Sharepoint and Microsoft
Office communication server software without evaluating Free
Software alternatives you will increase your organisation's
dependence on Microsoft. You will take your IT systems further
down the one-way street of proprietary formats and proprietary
software, locking in your organisation's own data along with that
of the citizens of Bolzano.

The decisions you are making today will have an impact for the
years to come. Breaking out of the lock-in will only become more
expensive over time, as you risk turning more of your valuable
data into digital toxic waste.

Rather than throw good money after bad, we ask you to step back from
your deal with Microsoft, and issue a public call for tender open to all
suppliers. When making a choice about the future solution for your
organisation, we urge you to consider the strategic freedom which Free
Software, Open Standards and open file formats provide, rather than
deepening your dependence on a single vendor.

You might also wish to investigate the opportunities that such a
strategy would provide for local businesses in the province of
Bolzano-Bozen, which has successfully turned itself into a Free
Software hub.